EBA’s Technical Standards on Instant Payments: Towards Harmonized Data Collection and a Deadline Extension

On February 4, 2025, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published its final technical standards (ITS) on data collection and reporting related to credit transfer fees (standard and instant), payment accounts, and rejected transactions. These standards, established under the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR) amending the SEPA regulation, create a standardized framework for payment service providers (PSPs) to submit reliable and comparable information to national authorities. To ensure realistic implementation and reduce the administrative burden, the EBA has decided to postpone the first harmonized reporting deadline from April 2025 to April 2026.

1. Context and Legal Framework

? The revised SEPA regulation, under the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR), mandates the EBA to define uniform reporting templates and instructions as per Article 15(5). ? The objective of these standards is to enable the European Commission to monitor the correct implementation of instant credit transfers, ensuring they are not more expensive than standard transfers and remain widely accessible to consumers. ? The new reporting obligations also include data on the proportion of rejected transactions, particularly those blocked due to EU financial sanctions, thus improving traceability and compliance with EU regulations.

2. Scope: What Data Will Be Collected?

? Credit transfer fees: PSPs must report the pricing of instant and standard credit transfers at national and EU levels, specifying:

• User categories (individuals, businesses).
• Initiation channels (branch, online, mobile).
• Cost distribution (payer vs. beneficiary). ? Payment account fees: PSPs must disclose pricing structures for payment accounts, providing a comprehensive view of consumer costs. ? Rejected transactions: PSPs must report the share of instant transfers (domestic and cross-border) declined due to EU sanctions, ensuring greater oversight and compliance.

3. Postponement of the First Reporting Deadline to April 2026

? Reason for the delay: The EBA determined that enforcing the deadline in April 2025 would lead to inconsistencies (terminology, formats, definitions) and impose an excessive burden on PSPs, especially since the European Commission will not have validated the final ITS by that date. ? New timeline:

• April 9, 2026: PSPs submit reports to national authorities.
• October 9, 2026: National authorities send aggregated data to the EBA and the European Commission. ? Until then, the EBA advises authorities not to penalize PSPs for missing the 2025 reporting deadline and to discourage institutions from providing non-harmonized data before the final taxonomy and validation rules are in place.

4. Simplification and Alignment with Existing Regulatory Frameworks

? The EBA has minimized the additional burden on PSPs by:

• Reusing terminology from PSD2, the ECB’s payment statistics regulation, and the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD).
• Reorganizing reporting tables to clarify the distinction between fees charged by the payer’s bank and those charged by the beneficiary’s bank.
• Adapting data collection requirements for non-eurozone PSPs (handling transactions in different currencies). ? Adjustments were also made to align the reporting annexes (Annex I, Annex II) with the ECB’s statistical framework, ensuring consistency, avoiding double reporting, and improving comparability.

5. Future Steps and Key Milestones

? Publication of the taxonomy: The EBA plans to release the XBRL taxonomy, data point model (DPM), and validation rules by mid-2025, allowing PSPs sufficient time for compliance preparations before April 2026. ? European Commission review: The data collected will help the Commission assess the pricing and accessibility of instant payments in the EU. Additionally, the data will be used to determine whether PSPs are rejecting a significant number of transactions due to international sanctions. ? Final report: The European Commission is expected to present a comprehensive analysis by October 2028, which could lead to amendments or enhancements of the SEPA and IPR regulatory frameworks.

Conclusion

With these final technical standards, the EBA aims to standardize and streamline the collection of data on bank fees and rejected transactions. The postponement to April 2026 addresses concerns from PSPs, who required additional time to prepare for the extensive reporting requirements. Ultimately, the European Commission will have harmonized data to assess pricing transparency in instant payments and monitor compliance with EU sanctions regulations, contributing to a more efficient and secure European payments market.

?? For further details, see the EBA’s official announcement: EBA publishes its final draft technical standards on reporting data on charges for credit transfers and payments accounts

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